The term “museum showcase” is meant to indicate a showcase intended to be arranged in a display room such as a museum, an exhibition or similar and intended for conserving and displaying items of cultural heritage, such as works of art, historical artefacts and similar, in a protected environment. Hereinafter, sometimes for the sake of brevity just the term showcase will be used, by this in any case still meaning a museum showcase.
Here and hereinafter the term “protected environment” is meant to indicate an environment in which the atmosphere is controlled, by monitoring one or more parameters including temperature, humidity, dust content, pollutant content, in order to maintain the foreseen conservation conditions of the displayed objects, and wherein the possibility of access for unauthorised people is prevented to avoid thefts and damage to the displayed objects.
Here and hereinafter the term “door” is meant to indicate both an openable wall of a museum showcase, and a more complex openable structure, for example a case, formed from walls fixedly connected to one another so as to form a single piece.
Museum showcases with doors supported by articulated quadrilateral hinges are known and widely used in the market, said hinges comprising a fixed element anchored to a container body of the showcase, a mobile element anchored to the door and a pair of connecting rods hinged, respectively, to the fixed element and to the mobile element.
In this way, the door is articulated to the container body and moveable with respect to it, according to a roto-translation movement, between a closed position, in which it abuts on the container body, and an open position, in which it is angled with respect to the container body so as to allow access to the inside of the container body.
A drawback of known articulated quadrilateral hinges is linked to the problems encountered when it is wished to move a particularly large and heavy door (for example having width and height dimensions of a few meters).
Indeed, it has been observed that, with this type of hinge, large sized doors, when they are in closed position, due to the geometry of the quadrilateral linkage, can tend to move away from the container body under the effect of their own weight or in the presence of pushes from somebody.
This movement of the door away from the container body in closed position has been observed particularly in doors of showcases for displaying and/or conserving valuable objects, such as works of art, scientific artefacts, objects of cultural heritage and the like. Indeed, in order to protect the work from attempted theft or damage, the aforementioned showcases are normally made of shatterproof and/or bulletproof glass, which further increases the weight thereof.
The problem outlined above relative to known articulated quadrilateral hinges is particularly serious in the case of the aforementioned showcases, in which, in order to preserve the work of art, it is important to completely insulate the interior from the exterior, whereas the movement apart of the door and the container body can be such as to create an opening through which contaminating agents, for example dust, humidity and the like, can enter into the container body. Indeed, the away movement of the door can even provide a grip for possible those with malicious intent who wish to force open the showcase.
Moreover, in extreme conditions, the movement of the door away from the container body could generate undesired stresses on the components of the hinge, possibly compromising the structural and functional characteristics thereof. In this case, the hinge must be replaced.
The problem at the basis of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a museum showcase with an articulated quadrilateral hinge capable of overcoming the aforementioned drawbacks with reference to the prior art, i.e. configured so as to counteract the movement of the door away from the container body in closed position, thus ensuring perfect closure of the showcase.